negotiating life

Frames of Mind

Good negotiations can depend on finding the right approach to the issuesby Jeswald W. Salacuse fletcher school
of Law and diplomacy

In 2002, the leadership of a large New Jersey hospital became concerned
about ethnic tensions between patients and staff. The patients, mainly
Hispanic, were complaining about insensitive, rude, and sometimes discriminatory
treatment by the doctors. Nearly 80 percent of the doctors were immigrants,
primarily from India, Pakistan, Russia, and Africa, and they often found
it hard to communicate with patients, many of whom didn’t speak English.
Indeed, a study by outside consultants indicated that the doctors lacked
the skills to deliver care in a multicultural environment.

In response, hospital administrators hired a firm to run costly training
seminars. None of the doctors attended. They were too busy taking care
of patients, they said. But then the administration tried another tack.
It persuaded a doctor to work with a communications expert to prepare a
presentation of a medical case in which a physician who didn’t speak
Spanish had to diagnose a Hispanic patient who didn’t speak English.
The presentation was then offered at “grand rounds,” the time
when doctors gathered to discuss interesting cases. The session marked
a breakthrough: engaged by the problem, the doctors began to learn about
communicating with ethnically diverse patients. They even asked that future
grand rounds include similar material.

The hospital succeeded in educating
its doctors because it changed the frame it was using. Framing—the
way a situation is characterized—can
orient people’s thinking in either productive or unfruitful ways,
and the frames that work best take into account the interests of those
who are to be influenced. Three kinds of frames are particularly important:
process frames, substantive frames, and behavioral frames.

Process Frames. By using grand rounds to get through to its doctors, the
New Jersey hospital both affirmed the importance of cultural diversity
in medical care and showed respect for the physicians’ status. A
lecture from an outside expert who was not a doctor could do neither. In
your own interactions with others, think hard about the kinds of processes
you choose. If you feel you are underpaid, will your boss be more receptive
to a demand for a raise or to a request for a performance review? Or say
the town planning board has decided against letting you expand your house.
Will its members be more likely to reconsider if you lodge a protest or
if you seek an explanation?

Substance Frames. The hospital’s use of grand rounds also reframed
the substance of the issue. The subject was no longer ethnic and racial
relations, which held little interest for the doctors, but a medical problem,
something central to their professional lives. President George H.W. Bush
made an equally savvy move in 1991 when he framed Iraq’s occupation
of Kuwait as a threat to the territorial integrity of states, the international
rule of law, and the U.N. Charter. The result was that countries large
and small united to eject Iraq. In the buildup to the 2003 Iraq invasion,
by contrast, Bush’s son never found a frame that convinced many nations
they had enough at stake to justify joining his coalition.

Behavioral Frames. When the other side engages in unproductive
behavior, it helps to reframe that behavior rather than respond in kind.
Suppose the person across the table says an idea of yours is “really
dumb.” Rather
than becoming incensed, you might reply, “Maybe, but how would you
improve it?” In a long negotiation between China and the United States
over intellectual property rights, the Chinese representative, offering
a new proposal, said, “It’s take it or leave!” Charlene
Barshefsky, the U.S. representative, stared at him silently for a long
time and then gave a reframing reply: “If you really mean take it
or leave it, I’m going to have to leave it. But I don’t think
you mean that. What I think you mean is that you have given us a serious
proposal that you want us to consider. And we will.” They eventually
struck a deal.

Altering the terms of the discussion can help you in many
negotiations. If you don’t like the picture that you see across the
table, try changing the frame.

JESWALD W. SALACUSE is the Henry J. Braker Professor of Law and former
dean of the Fletcher School at Tufts. His most recent book is Seven
Secrets for Negotiating with Government (AMACOM).